After leaving a legal career that no longer felt meaningful, former teacher and coach Mark Franek returned to education at YSC Academy, where he teaches elite soccer players in the Philadelphia Union’s development system. Inspired by student feedback—including criticism from Union prospect Cavan Sullivan about assigned readings on American soccer—Franek wrote American Soccer Nation, a nearly 300-page book that is now part of the school’s curriculum. Franek says teaching at YSC, whose alumni include World Cup players Mark McKenzie, Auston Trusty, and Brenden Aaronson, is “the best job in the world.”
